Design of an Experiment on Wakefield Acceleration on the VEPP-5 Injection Complex

Relativistic beams produced by the VEPP-5 injection complex (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences) can be used to generate plasma waves with a longitudinal electric field of 1 GV/m. A part of the electron (or positron) driver bunch is accelerated by this field over a distance of up to 1 m. The main advantage of the proposed design over the previous wakefield acceleration experiments is the beam preparation system capable of compressing bunches to a length of σz 0.1 mm in the longitudinal direction and producing an optimal longitudinal profile of the beam density. The main parameters of the planned device are as follows: the electron energy at the entrance to the plasma is 510 MeV, the number of particles in the bunch is 2 x 1010, the plasma density is up to 1016 cm-3, the number of accelerated particles is up to 3 x 109, and their energy spread is less than 10%. The physical project of the experiment is presented, and the results of computer simulations of the beam-plasma interaction are described